December 2016 – January 2017: Dominica, Guadeloupe, Antigua, and St. Maarten

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May 30th, 2018 by

November 30th: St. Pierre – Portsmouth, Dominica

We left the following morning at first light. For the past few days, Rosé had been having some abdominal pains, and overnight, it had gotten worse. She was taking some codeine pain pills that we bought in Antigua, but they were knocking her out. As we approached Dominica, her pain was getting much worse, and we decided we needed to get her some medical attention. There was a main hospital in Roseau, but Portsmouth had the medical school, so we decided to go there. As we approached Portsmouth, I called the medical school, but they said they only treat students. They did say there was a clinic in town. I contacted Edison Tours (Daniel, our boat boy from our last stay, works for Edison) and explained what was happening. They said they would have a taxi ready for us to take Rosé to the clinic.

Once we were on the mooring, Daniel took us to the dock, where we were driven to the small clinic. We explained the symptoms, and we waited about a half an hour before seeing a doctor. Based on the symptoms, the doctor believed it was likely an abdominal infection. He prescribed some antibiotics and arranged for an ultrasound the following day. When we were ready to leave, I inquired about paying, but I was told that the care was free. I can only imagine what that visit would have cost in the USA. Edison’s taxi had waited the whole time for us, and took us to a pharmacy for the medication. Rosé started feeling better a few hours after the antibiotics kicked in, and felt relatively good the next morning. The ultrasound didn’t reveal anything major, and Rosé was well on the road to recovery.

Position at destination: 15°34.882’N, 61°27.746’W
Air temp: 84, Humidity: 67%, Water temp: 84.5
Nautical miles for this leg: 54.8  Total: 10,642
Departed at 5:30am, arrived at 2:30pm

 
          Daniel took care of our needs again                                        At anchor in Portsmouth

November 30th – December 5th: Portsmouth, Dominica

We checked in the following day. As we had suspected, the Dominican authorities were not concerned that we had not officially checked out of Martinique, as we truthfully explained what had happened. After letting Rose have a couple of days to rest and recover, on Saturday we all went on another island tour, this time to the southern part pf the island. Out previous tour had been concentrated on the northern side. We drove down the coast on the nice road built by China, but we saw that the bridges destroyed by Erica were still not reconstructed – apparently China was not helping on them. We first stopped at the Sunset Bay Club, a dive resort that has trees full of iguanas. They were hard to see, but they were there. For some reason, we didn’t take pictures of them.

  
           The beach north of Sunset Bay Club                                           Lots of colorful birds

Further down the coast, we stopped briefly at the village of St. Joseph – the views of the town and the bay are always magnificent.

  
                          Village of St. Joseph                                     Government House, home to the President

We drove through the capital city of Roseau, and then made our way south to Champagne Reef, a diving and snorkeling resort with some great views. This place gets its name from the bubbles around the reef, which are a product of the vast system of active fumaroles here, their warm gas emissions a veritable toast to the island’s volcanic origins. It’s not clear if the bubbles are from sulfur or CO2, but we didn’t see too many of them in any event.

   
                The dock at Champagne Reef                                     Sittin’ on the rock in the bay

   
                         The selfie queens                                                       Never-ending tropical flowers

   
           We always manage to find a bar                                             Row, row, row your boat

Leaving Champagne Reef, we had to cross over a steep hill, finally descending into the village of Soufriere, home of Bubble Beach. There is a spa on the beach where there definitely are a lot of bubbles, and very hot water. The village also hosts a beautiful Catholic church, St. Mark. We also saw a number of HUGE and colorful caterpillars. We drank a few beers and played around in the hot water and bubbles.

 

     
The orange in the river is from clay       Catholic Church of St. Mark       Giant caterpillar of the Sphinx Moth

  
         A big caterpillar makes a big moth                                                Village of Soufriere

   
                      Bubble Beach “Spa”                                        Note the little fountain of water on the right

   
              Enjoying the hot water and bubbles                                              Noi and Debbie

   
                   The “spa” on the beach                                    Noi brought back lemon grass for Thai dishes

Leaving Soufriere, we returned to Roseau and then we climbed a steep road towards the southern interior­­. Our next destination was Trafalgar Falls. There are actually two falls. The taller waterfall, to the left, is popularly referred to as the “Papa Falls” and the shorter, but stronger one is affectionately called the “Mama Falls”; they are both on tributaries of the Roseau River. The “Breakfast” River that hikers cross en route to Boiling Lake is one of those tributaries, and it tumbles into the shorter waterfall. The water that leaves the Freshwater Lake area flows through Ti-Tou Gorge before cascading in the Papa Falls.

     

    
                                                         Trafalgar Falls – this is the “mama” fall

After swimming at the falls for a while, we continued our tour to Ti Kwen Glo Cho, and outdoor spa and park.  Ti Kwen Glo Cho is Creole for ‘little corner of water,’ a fitting name for this spa surrounded by tropical gardens at the top of the village. Hot sulfurous water bubbles up from below and is cooled down with fresh water from a waterfall before gushing into two communal stone pools from bamboo pipes. There were botanical gardens and a small zoo, but the big hit with the ladies were the baths.

     
                     Lots of tropical plants and flowers on the grounds                     Noi found a (cute dog) puppy

   
               Ain’t he a cute little feller?                                                    That’s a big grapefruit

    
       Yes, those are real                                     Brilliant plant                                    Noi in a nature shower

   
          Natural baths – they were quite warm                                         And a warm pool

  

  

   
                                                                                  Cute kids

After leaving Ti Kwen Glo Cho, we made the long drive back to Portsmouth. We had now seen most of Dominica, and it is a stunning natural island. We would not recommend it to beach lovers, but the beauty of the interior was something else. On the way back, we saw a large IGA grocery store near the medical school in Portsmouth, and the following day we took a taxi over for some major provisioning. Aftermath was in a bit of a hurry to get back to Florida for some family stuff, so they left the day after our tour. We stayed for a couple of more days with Symbiosis to enjoy Portsmouth.

   
                                                 The Purple Turtle is a beach restaurant in Portsmouth

   
     This wiring reminded us of San Salvador                                          Portsmouth sunset

Editor’s note: Since we last visited Dominica, it was devastated by Hurricane Maria. We have not revisited the island, but the pictures we have seen are heartbreaking. Most of the forest was destroyed, as were 90% of the buildings on the island. We do know that the people of Dominica have a strong spirit, and they are working hard to rebuild the island. The services offered by P.A.Y.S. and the boat boys at Portsmouth reopened within two months of the hurricane hit, and we have heard from other cruisers that rebuilding is well underway. We would encourage cruisers not to bypass Dominica. Stop and stay, enjoy the island, and help out with the rebuilding. We wish the best to the wonderful people of Dominica.

December 5th: Portsmouth – Terre-de-Haut, Guadeloupe

We left for a return trip to “the Saintes” off the southern shore of Guadeloupe. Symbiosis had skipped over the Saintes on their way south, so we warned them about the moorings. Unlike most moorings, these have no painter – just a big metal eye on the top. We picked it up off of the stern, and then running the line up to the bow. Aftermath was already moored, so we found some moorings close to them. The trip up was very pleasant, with small seas and light winds.

Position at destination: 15°52.268’N, 61°35.185’W
Air temp: 86, Humidity: 66%, Water temp: 85
Nautical miles for this leg: 21.2  Total: 10,663
Departed at 8:50am, arrived at 12:45pm


          Panorama view of the anchorage at Terre-de-Haut. Aftermath and Symbiosis are in front of us

December 5th – 9th: Terre-de-Haut

Aftermath was already preparing to go north to Antigua – John was concerned about weather, but we didn’t see much to worry about, but they left the day after we arrived. They joined us on shore for some drinks (imagine that). The following day we ran in to Brian and Lauren, who joined us for breakfast. They were also ready to cruise north.

   
        Rock formations around Pain de Sucre                                      View towards the town

   
                              The ferry dock                                                            The narrow streets of town

   
              Alert the media – we found a bar                                                  Debbie and John

We decided to explore the tiny island on an electric cart, a common way to get around. We first drove along the northern shore on the Route du Bois Joli, and went over the hill to Anse Crawen beach. The road over the last hill was steep enough that we had to get out of the cart, so Scott could get over the hump.

   
           Scott getting the e-cart instructions                                       View off of the north shore

  
                                                                                                   Guadeloupe in the background

   
          Walking on the beach at Anse Crawen                                 Lunch at Les Case aux Épices

    
                                                            Scott, Lucky, and Noi at Anse Crawen

   
                      Grande Anse beach                                                       Overlooking the anchorage

After our stop at Grande Anse, we navigated the small but confusing roadways to Plage de Pompierre, and beach park on the northeast side of the island. The beach had a number of ramadas and tons palm trees – it would be a great place for a picnic.

   
      Noi loves coconut water                         Cactus in the tropics                Palm trees at Plage de Pompierre

    
                                                              The beach at Plage de Pompierre

   
                  French gelato – mmmmm                                                Sunset over les Saintes

We certainly enjoyed our mini-tour, and our stay in the Saintes. On a fun note, while shopping, Noi told us that she had visited a boutique where she learned that the French word for tee-shirt was “taino”. We explained to her that the original native people in the area were called Taino’s, and that she must have misunderstood something. She insisted that she was told that taino meant tee-shirt in French, and we argued to no avail. To her credit, that night she looked up taino, and now agreed that it was not a French word. She is always fun. On our last afternoon, we visited the butcher shop to get a couple of steaks and some fresh cheese. The steaks looked fabulous, but they only had three of them. They turned out to be some of the best-tasting steaks we had on our trip. I guess we bought a decent amount of food, because the shop gave us some kind of sausage wrapped in paper, which also turned out to be very tasty.

December 9th: Terre-de-Haut – Deshaies

We had a pretty good weather window, so we decided it was time to leave. We wanted to go to Pigeon Island, the location of the Jacques Cousteau marine reserve. On the way down, it was way too rolly for us to stay there. There was almost no swell on the lee shore of Guadeloupe, so we were optimistic. Unfortunately, Scott called us a few minutes before we were scheduled to leave because he could not get his engine started. He had occasionally had problems, but he was always able to get it going by hooking up his portable generator. This morning, that trick didn’t work, so Scott was at his wit’s end. He messed around a little more, and then I reminded him that he did have a sailboat… He was able to sail off of the mooring, and away we went.

Around mid-morning, with the sun shining, he called and said that he was able to get the engine started. He was guessing that with the sun shining, his solar panels provided enough power to get the batteries up. It seemed strange that the generator didn’t do the trick, but it was good that he had the engine, since there was little wind blowing. We were still well ahead of them, and when we reached Pigeon Island, we checked out the moorings. It was calm enough to stay, but the moorings were rather close to the island. We were concerned that if Scott’s engine didn’t start, he might be in a little danger trying to sail away from the mooring. We called him, and we agreed to go straight to Deshaies for the night.

Once we arrived in Deshaies, of course the moorings were full, so we had to anchor near the mouth of the bay. We waited for Scott to arrive, and his engine was running, so he was able to anchor without further problem. We then started a discussion about when to leave. We wanted to leave at around midnight, so we would be in Antigua at first light. However, Noi wanted to wait until the next morning. We thought there was a better chance that their engine would start that night, versus sitting for an additional six hours. Eventually, Noi won the dispute, and we agreed to leave at first light. Later we learned that she did not want to leave that night, since it was Friday. Given the boat problems they had been having, her superstitions were in overdrive. Many boaters think it is bad luck to leave on a Friday. Scott told us that she threw their remaining bananas overboard (another sailor’s superstition), as well as some clothes (a Noi superstition).

Position at destination: 16°18.331’N, 61°47.924’W
Air temp: 87, Humidity: 57%, Water temp: 84
Nautical miles for this leg: 32.8  Total: 10,696
Departed at 8:45am, arrived at 2:15pm

December 10th: Deshaies – Jolly Harbour, Antigua

We left at dawn, free from the terror of a Friday departure, but Symbiosis’ engine still would not start. With the early morning calm, they were only able to make three to four knots, but once the wind kicked up a little, they were making good speed. As a matter of fact, Scott said it was some of the best sailing he had in a long time. We don’t understand sailing mentality. We had one tell us that they only sail when the wind is fourteen to sixteen knots – go figure. Scott does try to sail under almost any conditions. This day, they were actually ahead of us. Noi took some video of us under way. I’d say that the seas were around three feet that day – not trawler weather, but pretty nice.

                                      Tropical Blend cruising through 3′ seas on the way to Antigua

Once we approached Antigua’s lee shore, we turned in for Jolly Harbour. As we got close to the customs dock, we noticed a bunch of boats sailing back and forth in front of the office – apparently, this is the starting line for the weekly race conducted by the Jolly Harbour Yacht Club. With so many boats on both directions, it was a challenge getting across them to the customs dock. When we docked, we out a pretty hefty scratch in the side from an exposed nail. It’s pretty quick to check in at Jolly, but the officials never come out to help, and they clearly don’t care about the condition of the dock. After check in, we contacted the marina for our slip assignment, and they put us next to Aftermath, with Symbiosis on our other side.

Position at destination: 17°03.980’N, 61°52.997’W
Air temp: 86, Humidity: 63%, Water temp: 83.5
Nautical miles for this leg: 48.5  Total: 10,748
Departed at 6:00am, arrived at 2:00pm

December 10th: Deshaies – Jolly Harbour, Antigua

We left at dawn, free from the terror of a Friday departure, but Symbiosis’ engine still would not start. With the early morning calm, they were only able to make three to four knots, but once the wind kicked up a little, they were making good speed. As a matter of fact, Scott said it was some of the best sailing he had in a long time. We don’t understand sailing mentality. We had one tell us that they only sail when the wind is fourteen to sixteen knots – go figure. Scott does try to sail under almost any conditions. This day, they were actually ahead of us. Noi took some video of us under way. I’d say that the seas were around three feet that day – not trawler weather, but pretty nice.

Once we approached Antigua’s lee shore, we turned in for Jolly Harbour. As we got close to the customs dock, we noticed a bunch of boats sailing back and forth in front of the office – apparently, this is the starting line for the weekly race conducted by the Jolly Harbour Yacht Club. With so many boats on both directions, it was a challenge getting across them to the customs dock. When we docked, we out a pretty hefty scratch in the side from an exposed nail. It’s pretty quick to check in at Jolly, but the officials never come out to help, and they clearly don’t care about the condition of the dock. After check in, we contacted the marina for our slip assignment, and they put us next to Aftermath, with Symbiosis on our other side.

Position at destination: 17°03.980’N, 61°52.997’W
Air temp: 86, Humidity: 63%, Water temp: 83.5
Nautical miles for this leg: 48.5  Total: 10,748
Departed at 6:00am, arrived at 2:00pm

December 10th – January 20th: Jolly Harbour

We settled in for a long stay. John and Debbie would be flying home for Christmas, and we would be finding out what the heck was going on with our villa. We had originally been told that the government approval would take three or four months, but definitely less than six. As non-citizens, we have to get a license to purchase property, and each minister has to approve our application. But in September, our attorney advised us that the current owner did not have a license to sell the villa. We asked our realtor if that would impact the sale, and he said no. Well, six months came and went in December. As soon as we arrived, we looked up our realtor, and he seemed oblivious to the issue. We eventually spoke with the attorney, and she assured us that both licenses would be processed together, and we should have approval done by February. We had no choice but to wait. Island time, indeed.

It was kind of nice to settle in after spending the previous six weeks doing a lot of island hopping. Being so close the Christmas, we decided to take some pictures on the beach as Christmas cards. We also decided to hold daily happy hours on the dock, instead of going to a pricey bar. Each day, we would all bring snacks and drinks – it was a great idea.

   

  

   

  

   
                                                     Scenes form our dockside daily happy hour

  
                Holiday dinner at the Crow’s Nest                    A Caribbean Christmas Tree and a Christmas Cat

We spent a lot of time at the beach. However a few days before Christmas, Rosé and I came down with a bad case of the flu. It really kicked our butts, zapping all energy and hope for the future. We had reunited with our friends Steve and Joan, and they were having a Christmas Day party, but we couldn’t possibly make it.

We also wanted to get our satellite TV antenna fixed while we were in Antigua. It had failed while we were in St. Lucia, and the manufacturer recommended that we contact an authorized repair facility. It turned out that there was an electronics service place that worked on KVH antennas, so we called them. They had a big backup, as they were working on boats that were in Antigua for races in January. They finally sent a technician over, and he plugged into the diagnostic port, and told me that it was a software problem. He essentially reloaded and updated the software, and suddenly the antenna started up and tracked properly. However, a few days later, when we got some rain, the antenna lost tracking again. That is common with DirecTV, but when it stops raining, the antenna resumes tracking. Well, not this time – it failed again. We had the technician come back, and this time he messed around with the multiswitch wiring, which did the trick.

  
                                                                                Jolly Beach

  
                                                                                                                    Sunset at the marina

Once we were at least ambulatory again, Scott wanted to go to Falmouth Harbour – on his endless quest for an IPA, he had found a small place near Falmouth that brewed them. We went over on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, and it was quite the ordeal getting there. We took the bus to St. John’s, and then transferred to a bus for Falmouth Harbour. Scott wasn’t quite sure where it was at, so we got off the bus and walked for a while. We finally found the place – it was very small, without a bar area, but Scott sampled and bought a few of their brews. We walked over to Falmouth Harbour to see the big yachts and to have lunch.

   
                                                                          Falmouth Harbour

Once we returned, we decided to have a New Year’s Eve dinner at a new Chinese restaurant that had just opened in the commercial center. The menu was strange, and when I asked about the style of the food, the owner was quite put off and said that the chef decides what food is best, so there is no particular style. Strike one. The dishes were very pricey for Chinese, and we weren’t terribly hungry. We each ordered what we wanted – some entrees, some soups, and some salads. Again, the owner was quite put off, telling us that we needed to order a bunch of dishes and share them. We explained that we had some recently sick people in the group, so sharing was not a good idea. Our order were accepted with some indignity from the owner. Strike two. When the meals arrived, we were surprised at how small they were. In St Maarten, the Chinese meals were plentiful, like in the states, but these “meals” were like appetizers. Strike three. The flavor was oaky but we would definitely not be returning to this restaurant.

Early in January, we went about or monthly maintenance activities of exercising systems on the boat. Tropical Blend has a “wing engine”, which is a 27HP Yanmar engine (typical for small sailboats) offset from our main engine. In case of main engine failure, we can use the wing engine to get home, albeit at three knots or so. When we purchased the boat, the wing engine only had nineteen hours on it, very low. We tried to run the engine in gear for at least an hour a month to make sure everything was working well, and to circulate the fluids. When I out the engine in gear, there was a very unusual noise and vibration. I went to the engine room, and I saw that the stuffing box (it seals the shaft from the opening to keep sea water out) was seized to the shaft – not good.

Scott knew of a mechanic named Jesse who was working on another boat in the marina. I asked him to stop by. He took a look at the problem, and said that the shaft needed to be pulled. He said it was possible to do it in the water with a diver, but it would be a lot easier if we hauled out. I said that we were in need of repainting the bottom, so we would be able to haul the boat. The next day, I checked with the yard, but it would be a couple of days before they could get us on the schedule.

Once we hauled the boat, Jesse started to work on getting the shaft out, but the box was seized so hard, he decided to pull the shaft up through the boat with the stuffing box attached. It was quite an ordeal, but he finally got it out. He spent several hours working on it in his shop, using a blow torch and a hammer, and eventually broke the box loose. The good news was that the shaft was okay, bit the bad news was that the box had cracked, and he could not find a replacement on the island. He recommended getting a dripless shaft seal from the states as a replacement, which I readily agreed to, since it was virtually impossible to tighten or loosen the fitting on the old stuffing box. But, this meant a few more days of delay.

While the boat was on the hard, we were staying with Steve and Joan in their villa, then spending our days on board catching up on some projects and supervising the bottom painting job, which was being done by some associates of Jesse. I ran in to a problem with the paint – I could not find enough of the right color to get the job done. I was able to get a lighter color for the undercoat, so that worked out after all.

While we were staying with Steve and Joan, Quincy used up his last life. He adjusted well, and he seemed to be enjoying being off of the boat. One night, he collapsed and we could see that the growth had ruptured again, and this time it was a lot worse. We cleaned him up, but he was in a bad way. We stayed up with him that night, but he could barely walk. By the morning, it was pretty clear that his time was up. It took some gentle persuasion from Rose, but I agreed it was time. We found a recommended vet in town, and rented a car to get there. The vet agreed with our decision, and we held him until the end, which came very quickly. There were no animal cremation services on the island, but the vet offered to bury him on their property on the east side of the island the next day. We returned with a collection of his food and beds to donate to the rescue service. He was placed in a field overlooking a beach on the northeast side of the island, and we have access to him whenever we want. We decided that after we moved to Antigua, we would go up there for a fried chicken picnic in his honor. We still miss him a lot. He had an extraordinary life for a cat. He lived for twenty-one years, visited twenty-seven countries, and traveled over 10,000 miles in a boat. Rest in peace, buddy.

While all of this was going on, the TV antenna failed yet again. This time, the tech said he needed to get at the antenna, which is at the top of our mast. There is no way to climb up it, so we arranged for a cherry picker to lift him up at the yard. He told us that he found and fixed some issues with the wiring. The antenna worked for a day, and then failed again. We were done with that repair service. They sent me a bill, and I responded that the problem had never been fixed, and that the tech did not return calls when we wanted to arrange for the cherry picker a second time, before we launched the boat. I told them that I would agree to pay some of the bill, but I never heard from them, so I made no payment.

We took Scott and Noi around the island one day with a rental car, and we stopped for lunch at OJ’s Restaurant on Frye’s Beach.

   
                            OJ’s Restaurant                                                                  Frye’s Beach

  
                    Noi is always messing around      

   
                                            Antigua – home of 365 beaches and million-dollar views

John and Debbie returned from the Christmas visit, and we started to make out plans going forward. Scott made the suggestion that we return to Florida by going around the southern side of the D.R., then to Jamaica, the Caymans, and on to Isla Mujeres before getting to Key West. We liked the idea of seeing some different places, but John and Debbie weren’t so keen about it, since they did not want to do long overnight passages. We agreed to discuss the plan further once we got to St. Maarten. There were more happy hours, a community lobster dinner, and sunsets before we left. We also celebrated my birthday, complete with a chocolate cake.

   

   
                                               Stormy weather produced some beautiful rainbows

   

   
                                                          Lobster dinners all around – mmmmm

   
                                                                   Happy Birthday to Lucky!

   
                        One more happy hour                                     Kirby is always hoping something will drop

January 20th: Jolly Harbour – White House Bay, St. Kitts and Nevis

We departed under sunny skies and calm seas for Nevis. We planned to spend the night at White House Bay on the southern end of St. Kitts, but we would check in and out at Nevis to be legal. St. Kitts authorities are very strict about anchoring in White House Bay without first checking in, so we did not want to take a chance on a late afternoon boarding. That turned out to be a mistake. As we left Jolly Harbour, I really felt the loss of Quincy, as we were now really leaving him behind. I tried to remember how joyful it was to have him in our lives for so long, and that we would be coming back to the island soon.

When we arrived at Nevis around 3:00PM, we had a hard time finding open moorings, so our three boats had to be far apart. We asked John to put down his dinghy, as it was the largest, and it was easier for him to launch it than it was using our boom system. John, Scott and I went into the harbor to check in. Our previous experience checking in at Nevis was painless, but this one was not to be so painless. There were already two groups in the process – one couple and one family. The process for checking in is customs, immigration, and the port. We had to wait a VERY long time for the family to clear the customs office. We had no idea why they took so long, but it was more than an hour. We had all used the Sail Clear software to notify Nevis, but as usual, their system was down so we had to fill in the forms manually, which slows things down significantly. In all, the process took us two and a half hours – it was a big mistake to check in. We wasted time and money, on the rare chance that St. Kitts would be checking the anchorage on a late Friday afternoon.

We raced from Nevis to White House Bay to get there before dark, but we didn’t quite make it. We went to our previous anchoring position to be safe, since it was fairly dark when we arrived. Scott was concerned that he may have anchored into a snag, but we would wait until morning to find out.

Position at destination: 17°14.920’N, 62°39.634’W
Air temp: 82, Humidity: 56%, Water temp: 83
Nautical miles for this leg: 54.7  Total: 10,799
Departed at 7:00am, arrived at 6:30pm

January 21st: White House Bay – Simpson Bay Marina, St. Maarten

We left before dawn, and as he feared, Scott’s anchor was snagged, but he was able to get it free. On the plus side, his engine started. We had a beautiful day for cruising, and we had visits from dolphins and a small pod pf pilot whales. We were trying to get to Simpson Bay for the 3:00PM opening, but we just missed it. With such light winds, Symbiosis was late arriving, and we didn’t want to leave them behind, in case there was another problem starting the engine. The bay was a little rolly as we waited, and we took advantage of the long wait to check in, which is located right at the bridge. That way, we would have our dinghy down to use in the bay. We entered the lagoon at 5:00 and proceeded to our slip.

   
                  A lone dolphin made a beeline for us and played in our bow wake for fifteen minutes


                That’s a determined dolphin                                       The island of Statia

 

 


             Preparing the enter the lagoon                       Aftermath going through the bridge to Simpson Bay


        Superyachts in the Isle del Sol Marina             Venus again – we seemed to have the same plan

Position at destination: 18°02.120’N, 63°05.896’W
Air temp: 85, Humidity: 59%, Water temp: 84
Nautical miles for this leg: 56.9  Total: 10,856
Departed at 5:45am, arrived at 5:15pm

 

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